Second Chances
by Raeinspace
Summary: Zelena plans to go back in time, but Regina finds a way to hitch a ride (using blood magic) to go with her and try to stop her. Emma gets caught up in the spell. Regina manages to stop adult Zelena, but when Regina sees Cora sending her sister to Oz, she feels sorry for the baby Zelena. Emma suggests giving Zelena a second chance. SwanQueen.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own OUAT, etc.**

* * *

Regina wasn't used to being included in the little meetings Snow and Charming held with their friends. She was pacing up and down, irritated with the way they would allow just anyone to voice an opinion and then get side-tracked discussing it. They had been there for nearly four hours and she was beginning to wear tracks in the floor.

"We don't have time for this!" She finally snapped, rounding on the table and scaring Archie enough that he leaned back away from her.

"Chill, Queenie."

That was from Grumpy. Regina hated it when he called her that. She wanted to stuff him back in a mine where he belonged; dwarves shouldn't be let out into the sunlight amongst civilised people, if they were anything like him. It had been better when he was under the curse and kept out of her way. Only having to interact with one or two of the other dwarves during that time hadn't been so bad. She should have given him a worse job.

Regina smiled as she pictured Grumpy in a variety of different jobs. "I'll 'chill' when we've stopped Zelena and Henry is safe."

"That's what we're trying to do." Snow tried to calm the situation.

"We all know there's only one solution."

Everyone turned at the sound of Rumplestiltskin's voice. Charming moved in front of his wife, while Regina simply folded her arms.

"He's my grandson too." Rumplestiltskin casually reminded them, standing in the doorway with one hand on his cane and the other arm around Belle.

"We're not fighting evil with more evil." Grumpy told him.

Belle stepped forward. "He's…"

"It's alright Belle. I wasn't talking to him, anyway."

"He's right." Charming looked him straight in the eyes. "No dark magic."

"Who said anything about dark magic?" Rumplestiltskin smiled.

Regina finally deigned to take a seat, curious to hear what he had to say. "Emma doesn't have enough control over her power, and my education in light magic is somewhat lacking. We know what Zelena is planning. How else can we stop her?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"We've already discussed this, we can't ask Regina to try and kill Zelena." Emma piped up.

"If you're going to drag this out with teasing, I'll tell them." Belle warned him.

Regina swore he rolled his eyes as he smiled at her. It was not a sight she had seen before. Clearly he was finally ready to let love change him.

"As I was saying," Rumplestiltskin lent forward on his cane, looking directly at Regina. "You can use blood magic."

"How will that help us? Anything I try using that, she can turn back on me."

"Only if she isn't too distracted to notice. When she tries to go back in time, you're going to go with her. She won't expect that. She'll be looking for a direct attack. I'll teach you the spell to link yourself to her, then when she goes…" He waved his hand as if to demonstrate his point. "You'll go."

"Can't you find a way to stop her before she succeeds?" Snow asked him.

"This is your best chance."

"She can't go alone." Charming looked at his wife for confirmation.

"Don't trust me?" Regina gave a small smile in his direction.

"Zelena is powerful, you should take someone with you. I'll go, I remember the land from back then." Granny volunteered. "Plus, if the magic thing doesn't work, I'll have my crossbow."

"Or I could go."

"No." Regina turned down Rumplestiltskin's offer immediately, not trusting him.

He might try to meddle in the past and change all their lives. Then she might not have Henry. Or he might try to restart his romance with her mother – inwardly she cringed.

"What if someone recognised you? At least Granny has changed."

"Older _and _wiser." Granny pointed out. "But still with a good aim."

"That settles it then." Snow told them. "We'll call it Plan B. Plan A will be continuing to find a way to stop it coming to Plan B."

"Can we take a break now?" Emma asked. "It might be nice to spend some time with Henry, Ruby's got a life of her own to live, you know?"

"Sure." Snow smiled at her daughter. "Maybe we can all go and get dinner together."

"That's our queue to leave." Rumplestiltskin told Belle. "Before they start the hugging."

Before anyone could inform him that they'd rather hug a cactus than the Dark One, he and Belle had gone.

* * *

It took two days of digging through Cora's books before Regina found a small mention on time travel. Emma had asked Belle to look through Rumplestiltskin's collection for them, but so far she'd come up empty.

"Well, looks like Granny's out." Regina told her, sitting in a comfortable chair while Emma skim read the books from the floor.

"Huh?"

"It says here, that theoretically – because even the time travel spell itself is just a theory – one cannot travel back to a time or place where we have previously existed. Therefore, I will have to go on my own."

"The whole, meet yourself and the universe as we know it will go kablooey?"

Regina raised an eyebrow. "Where do you get these words?"

"Well, maybe that's not the word they used, but I've seen time travel films and tv shows."

"I think in Back to the Future they were more worried about changing the past and not existing anymore."

"You've seen that?" Emma grinned.

"Getting back on topic… Zelena should be safe because she's only going back to a time when she was in our mother's womb."

"We should probably go and tell them. Guess I'll have to volunteer."

"No, you will not. You are to remain with Henry and keep him safe."

"If you fail, Henry won't exist. Zelena will probably kill my grandmother and then I won't exist either."

"I won't let that happen."

"Who else are you going to take? You'd kill Grumpy the second you crossed over, the same with either of my parents. Rumplestiltskin would never let Belle go, Archie would just annoy you with reminders that hurting Zelena will only hurt you in return. Ruby…" Emma shrugged. "Maybe Ruby would be a good choice."

"Werewolves were not accepted. She would refuse to listen to my advice, she'd try to wear wholly inappropriate clothing…"

Emma stretched out her legs and stood up. "Your choices are getting smaller. We'll see what my parents suggest."

"I'll stay here with the books. I might find something that's actually useful."

Emma smiled. "I didn't hear that."

"I can repeat it, if you like?"

Shaking her head, Emma walked to the door. "Don't forget, you're cooking dinner for Henry tonight, I'll pick him up at 7."

"They'll be plenty if you'd like to come too." Regina offered as she walked out of sight.

She wondered whether Emma had heard her.


	2. Chapter 2

A week later and Zelena still hadn't cast the spell. Regina was constantly on edge, having Ruby following her around 'just in case' was getting on her nerves. She had no idea what could be taking so long. Her bag had been packed and shrunk with magic so that it fit on a necklace. On the chance that her magic wouldn't work in the past, she had made the release voice activated.

In the end, Gold gave them a ten-minute warning. Just long enough to teleport to Henry and say goodbye. Ruby hugged her grandmother as Emma came to talk to Regina.

"Take care of Henry." Regina told her.

"I promise."

"What's that?" Henry asked, pointing outside.

Green lightening shot across the sky. It narrowly missed the clock tower as it passed over.

"That's our cue." Regina looked over at Ruby.

"Goodbye, we'll miss you." Ruby said, looking around.

"See you soon." Henry told her.

"If they do this right, it'll be no time at all." Gold corrected him.

"And if we don't?" Ruby asked with a smile.

"None of _you _will exist. Well, maybe you will as Granny won't be affected."

"Ready?" Regina held out her hand for Ruby.

The werewolf paused to give Snow a quick, last minute hug. "Ready."

A bolt of lightning shot onto the middle of the street outside. Emma jumped as it tore into the ground, leaving a long gash on the road.

"Isn't that a little close?" Ruby asked, sounding worried.

Gold smiled as he explained. "It's coming for you, picking up Regina's connection to Zelena through the blood magic."

"What? No-one said anything about lightning. What if it kills us?"

Gold rolled his eyes. "A bit late to back out now dearie."

Regina headed towards the door. "Are you coming or not?"

The next bolt of lightning hit the pavement outside. As she headed towards Regina, Ruby tripped over and fell to the ground.

"Hurry up." Gold urged her.

Regina opened the door, she didn't want the lightning to accidentally hit Henry as it came for her. Thunder boomed in the sky as Regina turned back to look for Ruby. Emerald light struck her back, pushing her forwards. She felt a hand grab hers and held tight as she continued to fall.

* * *

There was a buzzing in her ears. Regina fought to open her eyes and see where she was. The sky above her was a clear blue and her hands touched grass as she tried to sit up.

"Did we make it?" Emma asked from beside her.

"Well we're not dead." Regina muttered, looking around.

"Was there much danger of that?"

"All magic comes…"

"…with a price." Emma finished for her. "I know."

"The time travel spell was mostly theoretical, the blood magic spell used to link family members for travelling had to be adapted for travelling through time and..."

"In other words, there was a good chance it wouldn't work."

"Gold had every confidence…"

Emma stood and held out a hand to help Regina up. "Well, now we're here, where do we start?"

"First I need to find a way to get you back home."

"What?"

"_Ruby _was supposed to come through with me, remember?" Regina reminded her, brushing off a few stray pieces of grass sticking to her clothes.

"I know, but…"

An arrow whistled past their heads. Regina pulled Emma out of the way and they landed back on the ground. She kept her hand on Emma's back, not wanting the other woman to stand until she was sure where the danger was coming from. Emma opened her mouth to speak, but Regina shushed her and listened. When she was certain of the direction it had come from, she pointed to Emma and signed which way she wanted her to go. She didn't know how her magic would react to being in the past, or if it would even work here, so she wanted Emma out of the way in case something went wrong. Emma seemed to have guessed this, because she ignored Regina's instructions and headed into the danger.

Regina swiftly followed, her hands ready to cast a spell to defend them. At first all she heard were voices, but soon she saw the group of young men. They were standing in a circle, talking and laughing as though they hadn't almost killed someone. Emma stormed towards them before Regina could stop her. She had no choice but to go after her.

Emma reached them and grabbed closest one by the front of his shirt. "Who sent you? Zelena?"

The man looked at her with wide eyes and shook his head. His friends took one look at Emma, and decided she wasn't a threat so they crowded around her. They were dressed in simple woodsmen clothes, only one had a bow and quiver of arrows.

"Put him down." Regina told her, pushing through them.

"Who are you?" One of the men asked.

"Emma, put him down." She repeated, placing a hand on Emma's arm.

"Not until he tells us why they shot at us."

"We thought you were the Sheriff's men." The one Emma was holding confessed.

"They're outlaws." Regina explained. "Look at their clothes."

"Like Robin Hood?"

"Yes, though that particular scoundrel isn't around yet."

"You knew him?"

"We never met, but I head dealings with the men who hunted him. Now, let him go."

Emma released her grip on the shirt. "Don't you want to ask them where we are?"

"I think they're more likely to cooperate if you don't rough them up first."

* * *

The further away they went from the forest, the more confident Regina became in their surroundings. She had begun picking out familiar landscapes and released the supplies from her necklace when they stopped to rest.

"How much of a head start will Zelena have?" Emma asked, refilling a flash from the river.

"Theoretically, either we should have arrived the same distance apart as we were in Storybrooke or we should have arrived at the same place."

"Do you think she knows we came back too?"

"I hope not. She may intend to persuade our mother to keep her by showing off her magic or by altering other events to her advantage."

"So we have to find Cora and keep Zelena away from her?"

"Zelena threatened to kill everyone in Storybrooke, including Henry. We're going to do a little more than that."

"Would you really kill your own sister?"

Regina frowned. "I expect that kind of assumption from your parents. As a matter of fact it was my intention to simply remove her powers."

"Right, sorry."

"We should keep moving. I have enough money to buy a couple of horses, but we have to get to the next village first."

"Can we risk that?"

"What?"

"Buying horses. You know, in case it affects history, like the poem 'For the want of a horseshoe nail'. Those horses might need to be in that village for the future."

"We're not at war. I doubt two horses will make a different, but if you want we can return them once we find Zelena."

"We'll only need one."

"Why is that?"

Emma smiled sheepishly. "I can't ride."


End file.
